[Correction: The original news of this rally that reached me indicated it was today.  Thanks to Colin for sending me this important correction – the rally is actually on April 18th]

One of the problems with the enormous number of Facebook groups that have popped up to protest Time Warner is that it’s extremely difficult to get everyone on the same page to coordinate activism events.  I encourage anyone running one of these groups to find someone they can appoint who can bring important news and developments to our attention so we can get the word out.  Since we’ve been fighting caps for almost a year now, there are a lot of people, including media outlets, that already link to us as a trusted source.  So please make sure you include us in getting the word out.  If you’d like a regular column to keep everyone informed about developments in your Facebook group (or any other organized group effort), let me know with our contact form.  I can give you an account to write your own column here.

Road Runner Usage Cap Protest

Time: 11:00am-5:00pm

Date: Saturday, April 18

Location: Time Warner Cable Store – 71 Mt. Hope Avenue – Rochester, New York

Click the link above to RSVP or get additional information.

View Larger Map

Just a few minor housekeeping matters and notes:

• When we moved the server, a side-effect was the introduction of some funky characters in some of our earlier articles.  This had to do with our old SQL server defaulting into a different character set.  Either I will manually re-edit these articles to get rid of that, or we’ll write a quick program and do it for us automatically.  Sorry about that.
• Our e-mail service attached to stopthecap.com is temporarily not working.  Mail is still being queued, so as soon as the problem is fixed tonight, everything will catch up.  If you sent a priority message and I have not responded, this is the reason.
• I will be tinkering with the look and feel of the site over the weekend.  One of my tendencies is to write long and typically involved articles on these issues.  For those looking to catch up on earlier material, scrolling through my word salads can be a ponderous endeavor.  A slight format change will make scrolling easier.

Upcoming priority articles will be directed to our friends in Texas on Time Warner price protection plans, plus an updated contact list you can use to bother Time Warner with your complaints.  I will also be posting more video news reports so people can follow how this story is being covered.

Good afternoon. A number of you have been sending me ideas regarding petitions, complaint forms, and other public policy initiatives. I appreciate receiving this information, and the reason you have not seen much push in this direction as of yet is because I wanted to first make sure people who needed alternatives to a capped Road Runner could begin to find them, especially those with Price Protection plans which let you lock in cap-free Internet for as long as you can. A lot of folks have been very emotional with me in discussing this issue. One young lady wrote she was in tears and hysterical because her parents just cut off her Internet because they were sure the cap started immediately. Another wrote he was having trouble staying focused and felt completely deflated thinking about the many ways these caps will change his life.

For a lot of younger people, the online life they have always known is about to change forever if we are stuck in an all-cap world. It’s a major shell shocker, and you cannot get people refocused on the fight against this until you deal with the emotional shock some people are coping with. So step one was finding people some hope that while we prepare to go to war over this issue, their Internet connection will at least be safe, available, and not predisposed to empty your wallet.

Next week, the education will begin. A lot of consumers do not understand the broadband business, and are at risk of being co-opted into an industry “us vs. them” campaign, where we are left arguing over their terms about who is a “bandwidth hog” and who “deserves a lower bill.” The first thing you need to know is there is no such thing as a lower bill. No Time Warner plan is going to save you money on these terms. If you are a light user who barely uses the net, there are already plenty of alternatives out there that cost less than what TW charges today, and will charge and limit you with tomorrow. Anyone with cable already knows the only direction those bills will go is up. It’s just we’ve redefined the stratosphere.

So we’re going to understand that we’re all in this together, whether you are a casual or very heavy user. This isn’t about costs or fake “bandwidth shortages,” this is about padding profits plain and simple, and attempting to kill off potential competition before it gets started.

And that latter point will be the direction we are going to go legislatively. Not only dealing with the net neutrality issue, but also the concepts of a level playing field, redlining people into bandwidth have’s and have not’s, and also equity of access for our rural communities. These are all points legislators care about, and since cable broadband service is completely unregulated, simply complaining about something legislators have no authority over at the moment will not help us. We’ll be dealing with state and local officials, federal agencies, and also private entities that stand to lose much more than we have. It’s time for Netflix and other like companies to start ponying up resources and get in the game, or their days are numbered.

Stay tuned. You can read a moderately improved article above the fold in today’s Democrat & Chronicle. It’s better than the last one, but there is still simply a ton of information missing. Ask us.

Good morning.

It appears we’ve managed a successful move to a much more robust and responsive server, hopefully putting an end to the crushing slowdowns we were dealing with yesterday afternoon as traffic overwhelmed us.   If you encounter any errors or problems, please let me know.

I spent part of last evening listening to some of the sources I developed back during the Frontier 5GB proposed cap debacle from last summer, and have been able to gain some interesting insights, at least for the Rochester market.

1) Time Warner employees locally aren’t exactly thrilled, saddled with Rochester being a “test city” for the Internet rationing plan for Road Runner.  I suspect there is a growing consensus that Rochester will become the early epicenter for the pushback against these caps as the story has hit a major nerve in this community and continues to drive news coverage and activism.  Some of the local employees know perfectly well this is a very vocal community when it comes to technological development, and the headaches have just begun for them.

This decision to impose caps comes from outside of this area, and the one thing I think we all agreed on is that this is not Beaumont, Texas.  The phone calls and e-mails to Time Warner are coming in fast and furious, and need to continue to come in.  The cancellations have already begun as people decide that after the last substantial rate hike for cable services, just a month or two ago, this was the final straw.  What really matters most to Time Warner will be the number of people who actually leave.  Everyone complains.  So “complain and bear it” is really not going to be too effective in the long run.  They are ready for that.

2) It appears the actual effective date for the rationing plan with the punitive overage charges will go into effect in Rochester on November 1st.  I don’t know if this is also the date for Austin and San Antonio.  Greensboro was supposed to start earlier than the other “lucky cities.”

3) Frontier is actually sitting back and reflecting on what Time Warner has done which is a very good sign.  Time Warner was convinced that Frontier would announce its own cap and provide cover for Time Warner in Rochester.  But there are some in management who are echoing my own beliefs that this is a golden opportunity to consider dropping the cap plan they pondered last summer and pull the rug out from under Time Warner by dropping any notion of a cap and going on the attack.  Imagine the advertising mailers and ads bashing Time Warner for rationing Internet for their customers and forcing them to watch a gas gauge while on Frontier, you can sit back and just enjoy your Internet service without being afraid of budget busting cable bills.  Keeping people with Frontier, especially on a bundle, also can help preserve their wired telephone business, which has been hurting as people flip to digital phone products or just use their cell phones.

I also reflected I felt like Julie, your cruise director, about the irony of this site directing customers away from Frontier last summer over the prospects of a 5GB usage cap, but now directing people back to a renewed Frontier that boldly makes smart choices to win back customers they’ve lost over the years.  Let’s hope those forward thinking Frontier executives are able to convince this company they can have an amazing spike in new business by using this opportunity to their advantage.  I will post an Open Letter to Frontier here soon enough.

In other developments this morning, the Democrat & Chronicle is looking for people willing to speak on this issue on camera for a major story this Sunday.  If you are interested and are in Rochester, call Jeff Blackwell at (585) 258-2712.

Patrice Walsh at WHAM-TV made an error in her news report last evening by stating Verizon FIOS has had usage caps for the last 18 months.  Oops!  Whoever told her that got it completely wrong.  Verizon FIOS has no usage caps with their service.  And there has been a lot of speculation in our own comments section about what Earthlink is going to do.  The tech support and front line customer service people are not aware of corporate policy, so they are simply reflecting back what they’ve been trained to say.  We are still waiting for corporate communications representatives to get back to us with a definitive answer.  Right now, no caps on Earthlink.

Here are some headlines on usage cap and Internet rationing issues this Thursday evening:

Seen In San Antonio

Seen In San Antonio - Upset About Metering, Courtesy 'Hixster' on Broadband Reports

Texans On Price Protection Plans Temporarily Exempt from Internet Rationing

The Austin Business Journal reports this evening that Time Warner officials have announced customers in Texas who, as part of their Road Runner service, signed “price protection agreement” or service contracts will be exempted from the Internet rationing plan to be implemented in Austin and San Antonio.  Customers in several Road Runner franchise areas are compelled to agree to a term contract to receive the lowest price for Road Runner broadband service.  Customers in these areas are still permitted to sign these contracts, and we recommend that customers in this region attempt to sign for the longest possible term available.

Greensboro, North Carolina Road Runner Customers Outraged By Internet Ration Plan

Greensboro residents are outraged to discover Time Warner throwing their community into the “test markets” forced to endure heavily rationed Internet access plans from Road Runner.  The Greensboro News-Record reported several negative impressions of Road Runner’s bait-and-switch-like tactics.

“To say other people are subsidizing me is ridiculous,” said Jay Montlo, 23. “They sold me an unlimited plan and I bought it because I watch a lot of online video and I’m an online gamer. Now they’re going back and saying it’s not fair for me to use so much of something that’s unlimited for everyone.”

Company officials continue to defend their cookie cutter Beaumont example as being just fine for Beaumont, and therefore just fine for the rest of the country.  Greensboro is having none of it:

Beaumont, Texas is different from Greensboro. It’s smaller, has an older population, fewer college students and doesn’t have the vibrant online community that once earned this city the nickname “Blogsboro.”

“I don’t have any idea how much bandwidth I use right now,” said Roch Smith, a local web designer and blogger. “I don’t really think of it that way.”

But Smith said making customers more wallet-conscious about the way they use the Internet will stifle creativity and keep them from embracing new video and audio products online.

That could be part of the motivation, several customers suggested, because Time Warner has seen increased online competition for its cable TV and movie-on-demand products.

Smith said whatever the reason, the move will mean less innovation.

“I think it’s just a terrible thing for the city to have our highest speed broadband priced in a way that’s unlike every other city our size,” Smith said. “Making us a ‘test market’ makes people on the cutting edge pay more and discourages people from discovering new things, things that are going to be very important in the future.”

Austin Mayoral Hopeful Blasts Time Warner for Internet Ration Plan

Time Warner’s Internet rationing plan threatens to stifle the economic recovery of Austin.  Those strong words are part of a statement issued Thursday evening by Austin City Council member and mayoral hopeful Lee Leffingwell.

Leffingwell says he's "deeply concerned" about Internet rationing plan from Time Warner

In a strongly worded statement released to the Austin press, Leffingwell blasted the Internet provider for insensitively throwing a usage cap on customers during one of the worst economic crisis in Texas history.

According to news reports today, Time Warner Cable is introducing a new pricing structure for Austin-area Internet users.  Under the new plan, consumers would be placed on a tiered and metered billing system, and charged for the amount of bandwidth they use.

This approach, and Time Warner’s specific plan, should be of grave concern to Austin.  Right now we need to be encouraging, rather than stifling, economic recovery and growth in Austin.  This plan moves us in the wrong direction.  It potentially puts Austin at a disadvantage as we compete against other communities to attract, retain, and grow prosperous businesses.

I’m obviously concerned about the impact this plan would have on individuals and families, who would have to begin to monitor their Internet use. The new pricing system would have a significant impact on anybody who uses the Internet to watch videos, download music, movies, or television shows.

But I’m deeply concerned about the impact of the plan on business owners, especially those working in high-tech and creative industries that require regular access to broadband Internet service.  Introducing an economic disincentive for Austin businesses to use the Internet to communicate, collaborate, innovate, and deliver services is very worrisome at best, and catastrophic at worst.

If Time Warner believes that is has no choice but to introduce usage caps, I would call on them to propose caps that are realistic and reasonable.  The usage caps proposed in their new plan are neither realistic nor reasonable.

For example, if a consumer downloads Season 1 of Friday Night Lights in high definition from iTunes, they will have used 30.86 gigabytes of transfer.  This one purchase would put that consumer over the limit of all but the most expensive tier that Time Warner is proposing under the new plan.  It’s easy to see how the costs associated with the ongoing, high volumes of Internet use that many Austin businesses require be could be astronomical.

Internet access should be expanded, not constrained.  Innovation and creativity should be unleashed by the Internet, not shackled by draconian usage caps.  This is vital to Austin’s economic recovery.  I hope that Time Warner will work with City officials and the community at large to reconsider this bad plan.

Rochester Residents May Not Know Their Alternatives, But Anything is Better Than Time Warner’s Internet Rationing

WHAM-TV Rochester, N.Y.

WHAM-TV logged more than 250 comments in a matter of hours from outraged residents of the Flower City furious about Time Warner’s Internet rationing plan.  Some confused Vonage with Verizon, but it made no difference.  All they wanted were directions to the exit.  Rochester, almost night and day different demographically from Beaumont, Texas where Time Warner conducted their first Internet rationing experiment, is up in arms about what most perceive as a ludicrous rate increase.  One of the most technologically advanced cities in New York, Rochester has been the test bed for advanced technology trials for years, but always with introducing more innovation and better service in mind, not pulling the rug out from area residents suffering from one of the worst economic downturns since the Depression.

Cristie from Hilton says, “In light of this, I will be making the switch to Frontier or Vonage.”

Laurie from Rochester wrote: “Time Warner has made a decision to put further burden on customers.”

Matt Slocum wants to know why this is happening? “My first question is–why? What’s the reason to instigate this policy?”

Matt uses the internet at home to watch TV shows or play movies. He also does some of his work at home, and says usage fees would kill him. “I have a family and have to pinch pennies any way I can,” he said.